5 Useful Tips for Learning to Play Guitar Chords Cleanly

When it is about playing guitar, we all love to play it like a rockstar but not all of us can become Steve Vai or Eric Clapton, can we? Playing guitar is an elegant feat and it would be great if the guitar playing skills are enhanced. The most important part is not quitting. Though you should not expect much in the very beginning, you must be ready for all difficult phases.

We totally understand that learning to play guitar can drive you crazy. To aid you on your journey of guitar learning, we present you five useful tips that can help you learn better guitar chords.

How to Play Guitar Chords Cleanly?

1) Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Most of the guys you watch performing on stage and in the albums are playing the guitar fast, let alone shredding. This might give you the urge of practice the whole playing rapidly because you feel that is what everyone do. However, you should not run until you can walk. Most important aspect is to start playing the guitar chords slowly in the beginning. Let your fingers know exactly what to do and how. Once you get used to it, faster playing will spontaneously surface. It takes experience for your fingertips to trace the chords and land on the right frets. Playing the chords perfect and correctly with proper fingering since the start only means everything will go well.

2) Shut Your Eyes and Look Elsewhere

If you observe beginner musicians playing an open gig for the first time with everyone, you can find heaps of nervousness on their face and sweat on their temple. However, there is another important aspect. If you observe them closely, you will find that they are very much conscious about their finger movements and they keep looking at it. Their eyes will be fixed on the guitar in nervousness.

Experts just need to take a look once in a while at the fret board to ensure they are in the right position. It is a talent you will develop sooner or later, but it’s thoughtful if you work on it since the beginning. Once you have practiced well, the habit of shutting eyes or looking away will spontaneously develop. Besides, you will look really cool on the stage!

3) Don’t Ignore the Hard Chords

Usually some chords are tougher than the rest. An F major played properly, for instance, needs a Barre chord on the first fret and can prove to be a challenging task for beginners. The problem is that this is a very crucial chord for various songs that are simple and unless you feel like using a capo to prevent it, you will have to push yourself to learn it. Same is the case with a B minor, which is another barre chord. Usually eighth and ninth chords will confuse your fingers big time and might feel next to impossible. Don’t neglect the hard chords for a mere reason that that are a pain to learn. It can prove to be frustrating and you might want to spend more time on them, but frequent practice and you will play like a professional.

4) Learn Barre Chords and Know How They Work

Barre chords are the flesh and skin of electric guitar playing and rock music. They also hold prominence in acoustic playing too, but are a bit chunky. To be frank, Barre chords are a tough job on acoustic guitars if there is a slim neck and are set up well. The happy news is that practicing acoustics mean that playing them on an electric axe will be a Cakewalk.

Practicing the fundamental barre chord shapes and how they effortlessly transform all over the fret board is also one of the best tricks for playing what seems to be a herculean task. If you seek a C sharp minor, you could just start with playing a B minor two frets.

5) Know Your Chords

This might seem weird, but it is simple to moderately change the chord you are practicing for a pleasing effect and get away from the actual tone. It is the authentic tuning of the guitar that is able to so this, as you are at times still playing an open string that adds to the overall structure of chords. You can now make new tries with chords, drop a finger, pay heed to clear sounds. Nonetheless, it is a prudent move to recognize which chord you are presently playing or else you will get used to a bad habit later on of addressing it as “a kind of Do minor” or “a C major thing”. Hence, if you are messing around with shapes of the chord, take your time to cross check what you have played. It will help you put up your ideas of song writing to other people in the band.

James Pineda

I am a guitar player, teacher and composer. He started playing piano at the age of seven. Five years later he had his first guitar performance with a local band. His style was inspired by guitarist like Nuno Bettencourt, Joe Satriani, Jerry Cantrell, Marty Friedman, Zakk Wylde, Steve Vai and Dimebag Darrell. During his career he had many bands and music project, going through different styles of original music and sometimes cover bands. In he 2012 co-founded the band Vulgar Bulgar (Pantera tribute band). In 2013 started teaching guitar at Rockschool.bg. Currently freelance guitar teacher, session musician and solo performing artist.

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